The mystery of the French toy soldier photo collection – SOLVED!

Thanks to Twitter agent @DanHammond72, I think we can safely say that this mystery is now solved! Scroll down to the bottom of the post to find out the maker of these soldiers!

I recently picked up some paperwork items from a local vintage toy shop here in France. Among the items was a folder of photographs showing a vintage toy soldier collection. The soldiers seem to be Napoleonic era and include both infantry and cavalry. The photos look professionally made and are printed on Kodak paper. This looks like it could have belonged to someone who was documenting and cataloguing their collection. All in all there are about 400-450 pieces across 18 photographs. I’ve spent time online trying to match these figures to brands such as Airfix, Britains, Starlux, Timpo etc, but to no avail. The figures all have the same rectangular bases (similar to Britains) apart from one set which has round bases. If anyone recognises any of the pieces and can put a name to the brand(s) please let me know! Thanks for looking.

Update: 20/10/2017

STARLUX

Here is the comparison I received that makes me certain enough to say that the majority of the figures in the collection of photographs are from the French Starlux l’Empire line. Big thanks to @DanHammond72 for the awesome detective work!

Figurine number 274 (left) with the mint in box picture I received (right). Mystery solved.

I’d already looked through a whole bunch of Starlux images previously and had drawn a blank, so having a match from a mint in box was priceless as it enabled me to make further searches online and find other matches. The figures all appear to be 60 mm in height and datewise appear to span 1965 through to the 80s.

No doubts here. MIB photo from Lulu-Berlu.

I’m pretty certain the riders here are the same. The MIB photo next to my photo is from Lulu-Berlu. They date the figure as 1965, which leads me to believe that the figure in my photo is possibly a later 80s remould – due to some differences in the horse, most notably the position of the head and colour of base. It could be a switched horse, as online photos of Starlux lots show riders that can be detached. As with many toys that are painted and licensed across the globe, it’s possible that paint applications and mould details may differ. Some collectors add their own paint schemes. This can all lead to many variations.

No doubts here about the match. MIB photo by Lulu-Berlu.

I was able to match most of the figures in this lot from Paravendu France with figures in my photos.

There. Mystery solved. Or is it? The question that remains now is who did this collection of soldiers belong to? Who was it that took time and care to label and photograph this collection? And why did the photographs end up in a vintage toy shop in Toulon, France? I expect that’s a question that will remain unanswered. For now I’m happy to be able to put a name to it all. Starlux. Thanks for looking, and please feel free to add any further information.

Hi Spanishwoods. Thanks, you’re right the photos are incredible, and I can only imagine the time and care it took to collect, display, catalogue and photograph them as the original collector did. My favourites are the cavalry ones as the poses of some of the horses and riders are striking.

Hi Anthony, thanks. I just had a look at Preiser and nothing matched. I checked out the Victrix website earlier and again no matches. It’s surprising how many toy soldier companies there are! What was nice though was coming across lots of images for the Britains Deetail figures which I had as a kid, so I managed to get a sweet nostalgia hit during my searches 🙂

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